October
13, 1999 -- Charlottesville-based
SNL Securities, a high-tech research
and publishing company that specializes in the financial services
industry, will grant three years of access to its on-line database,
Data Source, to business and engineering students at the University
of Virginia, in a gift valued at more than $1 million.

Data
Source, a data bank of information on banks, thrifts, insurance
companies and real estate investment trusts, is relied on by many
of the country's top financial analysts and institutional investors
who need up-to-the minute information to manage multi-billion-dollar
investment portfolios.

"We're
delighted with this gift from SNL, a company that is both a community
asset and an important partner of the engineering school," said
Engineering School Dean
Richard W. Miksad. "Reid Nagle and his company are helping us achieve
our goal of creating outstanding education and research programs
in information technology. Our many relationships, ranging from
shared research interests to a number of engineering alumni and
students employed by SNL, provide a fine example of the mutual benefits
of a partnership between higher education and private enterprise."

Adds
McIntire School
Dean Carl Zeithaml: "The McIntire School is very excited about SNL's
gift of Data Source. Not only is Data Source an important information
resource for our faculty and students, but it adds a terrific dimension
to the knowledge partnership between McIntire and SNL. McIntire
and the University have contributed to the intellectual capital
of SNL and now the firm is providing an extraordinary opportunity
to enhance the intellectual capital of current and future students.
We sincerely appreciate SNL's generosity MORE and look forward to
integrating Data Source into our curriculum and our new Center for
Financial Markets."

SNL
currently employs about 250 people, one-third of them U.Va. alumni.

SNL
data will be used for both research and teaching. Engineering students
will be able to study data mining, database management and related
subjects, as will business students, who also will conduct related
studies in finance and economics. Computer servers will relay data
from the company's central database to the University's School of
Engineering and Applied Science and to the McIntire School of Commerce,
which in turn will make the material available to students at the
Darden Graduate School of Business Administration.

"Many
of the SNL employees who have been instrumental in the development
of the Data Source and our other products received degrees from
U.Va.," said Reid Nagle, founder and president of SNL Securities.
"We've been looking for an opportunity to provide direct support
to U.Va. faculty in their research and teaching in the hope that
our partnership will help prepare future students for careers in
the financial services industry. We hope this gift will serve as
an effective research and teaching tool and demonstrate our commitment
to the University."

Reid
Nagle, SNL president and publisher, founded the company in Hoboken,
N.J., and moved it to Charlottesville in 1989. The privately held
company last year posted revenues of more than $15 million.

In
addition to its employment and philanthropic ties to the University,
SNL has worked with faculty from McIntire, Darden and the Economics
Department to conduct a series of analyst training programs through
the SNL Center for Financial Education LLC.

For
more information about the use of the gift at the School of Engineering
and Applied Science, call Peter
Beling, professor of systems engineering, at (804) 982-2066.

For
information about the use of the gift at the McIntire School of
Commerce, call Patrick Dennis,
professor of finance, at (804) 924-4050.

For
more information on SNL Securities, contact Mary
McDaniel by phone at (804) 977-1888, ext. 352.